Your Turn — Saturday, May 11, 2013

Updated 5:59 pm, Friday, May 10, 2013

Photo: BOB OWEN, Bob Owen / Rowen@express-news.net

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CPS Energy President and CEO Doyle Beneby, left, shared a private word with San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro before the CPS Energy's presentation of 2011 Plans for the Future at the Witte Museum. One of our readers takes Deneby to task for approving the recent bonuses for CPS executives.

CPS Energy President and CEO Doyle Beneby, left, shared a private word with San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro before the CPS Energy's presentation of 2011 Plans for the Future at the Witte Museum. One of our

As Mother's Day approaches, consider this: a mom's gift of life can take on new meaning for thousands of patients fighting life-threatening blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma. Choosing to donate her child's umbilical cord blood could provide a cure for patients whose only hope is a stem-cell transplant from an unrelated donor.

There is no cost to donate to a public-cord blood bank, and it is completely safe for both mother and baby. Cord blood is collected immediately after a baby is born and does not interfere with labor or delivery in any way. Donated cord blood units that meet criteria are listed on the Be The Match Registry®, so they are available to any patient in need of a cord blood transplant.

I encourage everyone, especially those from diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds, to reflect on the gift of life this Mother's Day and consider public cord-blood donation. This simple act gives immense hope to patients around the world, and potentially offers someone a second chance at life. For more information, contact the Texas Cord Blood Bank at www.bloodntissue. org/texascordbloodbank.asp, or visit BeTheMatch.org/cord.

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I want to congratulate Congress on solving the FAA flight delay problem — and just in time for their vacation.

And when they return from vacation, they have some important procrastination and blundering to accomplish.

Bobby Riley

CPS bonuses

Shortly after Mr. Doyle Beneby left Exelon and came to be the president and CEO of CPS Energy, he was called to task for lavish and costly dinners for himself, board members and visitors, complete with wine. At the time, I commented about the “camel getting its nose in the tent” and predicted that we had not heard the last regarding Mr. Beneby and the corporate culture he had brought with him. His mission to transform the board was not complete.

Prior to his coming to San Antonio, people were hired by CPS Energy and expected to perform well in those positions. They did not disappoint us. CPS Energy functioned well. But things have changed and continue to change thanks to Mr. Beneby. People are still being employed, but now they are being conditioned to expect and receive bonuses if we want them to come to work and do what they were hired to do in the years before Mr. Beneby.

My assessment of the world situation is that there is too much testosterone floating around. The tragic and pathetic consequence of males struggling to be the Alpha dog is a world rife with brutal, never-ending civil wars.

When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, millions of boys across the country wore clothing made in El Paso. Billy the Kid and Farah were two of the brands we wore and liked. A number of other textile factories abounded in that part of the country into the 1970s. The reason was very simple: under the Bracero Program, thousands of Mexican workers were allowed to work legally in El Paso at below minimum wage. On the other hand, the workers received wages above what they would have earned in Mexico. The program flourished for decades until it was dismantled on grounds that it robbed Americans of job opportunities. Once the factories closed, they never reopened, due in large part to cheaper labor in Mexico and in other parts of the world.

As President Obama and the Congress seek to improve our immigration laws, I encourage them to look at a now defunct program that worked. Foreign laborers who wanted to work here did so legally; employers offered jobs at wages more in sync with the world labor market. With a vast pool of unemployed Americans who will not do the type of work so many foreign workers will, why not open our doors to those who want to work here and then return once their work is finished. I'd call that a win-win for everybody.

Because five members of the Supreme Court seem to have gerrymandered the definition of a democracy, we have begun to rewrite the Constitution of these United States.

Instead of the economy being subject to the Constitution, the Constitution is now subject to the economy and money buys elections today.

Because they have changed the rule of democracy to the rule of those who have most of the money, our democracy is now sliding into an oligarchy in which a few wealthy citizens have the power to control the electoral process.

Wake up U.S. citizens or lose your status as members of an authentic democracy.

Without a doubt, he has not governed as well as he could or should. But the real blame is not his. It is instead the severe and endless obstruction, refusal to work within the system, and thorough denigration.

Democracy, indeed the welfare of our government itself is at risk. No outside enemy could be more dangerous or treasonous as are the gang of bullies who are undercutting and rejecting the rule of law and destroying our treasured form of government.

With citizens like these, there could be no more diabolical or deeply un-American enemy anywhere on earth.